Four militants killed in Gaza, US presses for peace

11.45am - By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

GAZA - Four Palestinian militants were killed by an explosion in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian witnesses and medics said, as US and other international mediators battled to rescue a Middle East peace plan.

The exact cause of the explosion was unclear, but Israel and Palestinian militants had earlier traded threats of more attacks after undercover Israeli forces killed a senior Hamas commander in the West Bank on Saturday.

The bloodshed at the weekend further battered the "road map" peace initiative, already under pressure after being affirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas at a June 4 summit with President Bush.

Witnesses initially said the four, identified as members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- an armed faction of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah national movement, were killed by Israeli tank rounds fired into Gaza's Beit Hanoun, a frequent flashpoint in the conflict.

Accounts later differed, with some witnesses saying the four were planting a bomb meant to detonate under a passing Israeli patrol but that it exploded prematurely.

Israeli military sources told Reuters there was no Israeli army shooting in the area at the time and checks indicated the militants were holding explosives that blew up.

Earlier on Sunday, a 27-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli troops near the Jewish settlement of Morag in central Gaza, Palestinian medics said. Israeli military sources said troops shot at a suspicious person seen approaching Morag's perimeter fence.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said after a meeting of the so-called Quartet of international mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- that the killing of Hamas's Abdullah Kawasme could hinder peace.

The military wing of Hamas, Islamists bent on destroying Israel, vowed "thundering retaliation" for Kawasme's death and said a call by Abbas for a truce was inconceivable while its men were being killed.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the weekly meeting of his right-wing cabinet that the government had demanded Palestinian authorities "act in the most serious manner against terrorist organisations."

If they did not, he said, "we will continue our activities to provide security" for Israelis.

Despite the bloodshed, Palestinian officials said a meeting on Sunday with US envoy John Wolf, assigned to shepherd steps to implement the road map, had raised prospects for a security deal with Israel that was key to the plan's first stages.

A senior Palestinian official said the talks focused on conditions for Israel to pull troops back from the Gaza Strip and hand over control to the Palestinian Authority's security forces, which Israel expects would then crack down on militants.

But Palestinian officials said what they called Kawasme's "assassination" did not help Abbas's cease-fire efforts.

Israeli security sources said Kawasme, whom Israel accused of organizing suicide bombings that killed 52 people, had an assault rifle and troops had tried to detain him.

The Quartet, meeting on Jordan's Dead Sea coast, discussed ways to salvage the peace plan, which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005 on land Israel seized in a 1967 war. Palestinians launched an uprising for statehood in September 2000.

In a clear reference to Kawasme's killing, Powell said: "I regret we continue to find ourselves trapped in this action and counter-action, provocation and reaction to provocation. (This) incident that could be an impediment to progress."

- REUTERS